Fifty years from now, when you celebrate your anniversary and reflect on your marriage… do you imagine yourself scrolling through your wedding photos on your iPhone (will those even exist?), or flipping through the thick pages of your tangible, handcrafted wedding album?
In our digital world, couples too often trust their memories to technology that will be obsolete one day. 10 years ago, wedding images were delivered on a CD. Today, I don’t even have a tech piece that allows me to read such discs.
While I love taking beautiful images, it’s only one part of what I do. You see, I would be doing you a disservice if I simply gave you your images in a digital gallery and called it a day. Because I know that the likelihood of you printing out the majority of your images or creating your own album at a later date is… almost nonexistent.
And the last thing I want is for your memories to be left on a computer or external hard drive to be rarely admired and celebrated.
So, with that, I want to share why I am so passionate about albums, and why I highly encourage all couples to invest in one!
1. It is your first heirloom as a couple.
An heirloom is a valuable object that has belonged to a family for several generations. And your wedding album is just that. You will pass it down to your children, and they will pass it on to their children, and so on. This is the very first heirloom of the family that you created. Your images illustrate your story, and your album showcases your beautiful, strong marriage that set the foundation for a legacy of love to last generations. Isn’t that seriously amazing?
2. You will have tangible images that will last forever.
When our parents and grandparents got married years and years ago, it was actually uncommon to NOT have a wedding album. It was tradition to have an album filled with memories from your wedding day, and people LOVED to show their prints off.
But now, with the internet, social media, and digital cameras, not many people are opting to have physical albums or prints of their wedding images. Yes, the photos will live on your phone and hard drive, but when your images are out of sight, they’re out of mind (whether they are among the thousands on your iPhone or on the USB tossed in a drawer). When your breathtaking album is in front of you daily, resting on your coffee table where you can easily reach for it, you get to relive one of your best days over and over again, whether with each other, or with your best friends or your parents when they visit.
There is nothing like being able to see and feel your images in real life. Each image has so much more impact when it is off the screen!
3. It’s how you tell your story.
Not only is your album an heirloom to be enjoyed for years to come, but it tells the story of your wedding day from start to finish. When I’m designing an album, I always organize the images chronologically so they can be relived in the same way the day played out. From time spent getting ready with your girls, to the moment you read a note from your groom and cried, to your first look, your ceremony, and celebrating the night away with all the people who mean the most to you… you get to relive every special moment as you flip through each page. And your loved ones get to do the same! Just imagine… the images in your album will become the illustrations in your future children’s favorite storybook.
4. Technology is unpredictable and ever-changing.
Will your children have to scroll Facebook to see the day mommy and daddy got married? What about your future grandchildren? How will they experience the day that grandma married grandpa? The day she married her best friend… the day she began her legacy of love. Because chances are, if you don’t invest in an album… you don’t know how your children or grandchildren will be able to see your wedding photos.
There will likely come a day when Facebook and Instagram are irrelevant (or even nonexistent), and the next social media platform has arrived. Remember MySpace? Things come and go. But do you know what’s been around for thousands of years and will never require a particular software or a password or the latest technology to access? Physical paper books. And what about VHS or floppy discs? Once upon a time, those were the up-to-date methods of technology for saving and sharing media. Now, if you asked me to play a VHS video or insert a floppy disc, I’d have to find a specialist or send it to a lab to access the data. Imagine what technology might look like in another 10, 15, or 20 years down the road.
Wedding albums protect your images and ensure that your most cherished memories will withstand the test of time. Even if USB flash drives are unable to be read in 15 years, your album will be there. If your hard drive crashes or your laptop is stolen, you will still have the highlights of your wedding day preserved. Your wedding album can always be enjoyed no matter where the trends and changes in technology take us. A beautiful, handcrafted album never becomes obsolete.
5. Something to show for all the time spent planning!
You planned your dream wedding for months, maybe even a year or more. You spent thousands and thousands of dollars on your big day… so why not show it off?
Okay, so you shared your images on social media, and that’s great! While I am of course a huge fan of social media (you can share your images with anyone, no matter how far away!), you now understand the reality of technology. The celebration of your wedding day and your marriage should last more than one day. With a wedding album, you can show off the grand event you put on and relive it every time you look through your album. Not to mention, you can show it off to friends, family, neighbors, or anyone who asks! Many of my brides actually keep a mini album in their purses so they can pull it out any time and any place!
6. It’s the perfect gift!
In all honesty, your wedding album isn’t just for the two of you. It’s for everyone involved in celebrating your marriage, and for future generations of your new family. Your parents, grandparents, siblings, and future children will all love and cherish your wedding album and the memories within its pages. And for that reason, it makes the perfect gift.
Having an album printed for your proud parents makes a wonderful gift (for really any holiday — Christmas, Mother’s Day, their birthday). I guarantee you, this will be one of their favorite gifts they have ever received, and one of their most treasured items! Most of my couples invest in a larger album created and kept for themselves, then gift smaller albums to their parents, grandparents, and bridesmaids.
7. Your time is valuable.
My clients are busy power couples who work hard and make the most out of their free time. They have told me over and over again that having me professionally design and produce their wedding album has been beyond worthwhile. While you could make your album yourself and there are many online platforms where you can order photo books, there is a lot that goes into it. The design process in itself takes a lot of time between choosing the photos and creating the layouts and properly positioning and pairing the images, deciding between cover options, placing the order, reviewing the product in person, and more. Your wedding photographer has plenty of experience with this and will create a beautiful album for you so that your experience is easy and totally stress-free. When your album is designed this seamlessly, the excitement of seeing your heirloom legacy album for the first time will leave you in tears.
8. The quality is unmatched.
As I previously mentioned, photographers are well-versed in album design. Not only this, but your photographer has access to the very best professional printing and album labs in the world that are not available to the average consumer. And believe me, there is a big difference in quality. Not to knock ’em, but we’re not using Shutterfly or Snapfish. I’ve reviewed many different album company options and landed on the one I use because of the incredible quality of their work. Your album should be handcrafted, inspected, and printed with the finest inks and on the highest quality archival papers, meant to last for generations. This level of precision and quality just isn’t provided by consumer-level printing labs.
You invested a lot into professional wedding photography. Why should you then print your images somewhere that will not match the high-end images you invested in? Your wedding photos are works of art, and the finished work of a photograph is in print form, not just a .jpg file.
9. Your wedding album is truly priceless.
A wedding album is more than a photo book. It’s an heirloom. Your legacy. As the memories of your wedding day fade, your photos only grow in value, and your wedding album will be priceless. While myself and my couples value experiences and time more than anything, this item will be one physical thing that truly means the world. If your house was burning down… I bet there’s a good chance your wedding album would be one of the belongings you’d grab first.
If a wedding album is important to you and a must-have in your wedding story, then I would encourage you to invest in a quality wedding album with your photographer. If you definitely want an album but are hesitant about the financial investment, add it to your wedding registry! You already know that a wedding album is the perfect gift, so your guests will be thrilled to contribute to something so sentimental that will last forever.
If you have any questions or if you’re still on the fence about investing in a wedding album, just send me a note. I’m all ears and happy to help, show you design options and samples, and answer any questions you may have!
filed under
